‘Tron 3’ Finds a New Writer

The same way I’m interested to see where Columbia Pictures may talk Angelina Jolie’s Salt franchise in a sequel, I am also curious to see what Disney may come up with when it comes to a sequel to the lackluster TRON: Legacy, and now both franchise have one more thing in common: the hiring of a poor screenwriter for the potential sequel.

Just as we learned yesterday that Kurt Wimmer (Ultraviolet) will return to script Salt 2, The Hollywood Reporter brings word today that David DiGilio has been tapped to write the screenplay for Tron 3. DiGilio’s lone feature screenplay is Disney’s dreadful Eight Below, the 2006 dog-sledding scientist feature starring Paul Walker directed by Frank Marshall (Congo), and now, in his return to feature films, he’s taking over for Legacy screenwriters Adam Horowitz and Adam Kitsis, who apparently are too busy with their new ABC television series “Once Upon a Time” to put in work on the film.

I will say this, it’s probably good the previous screenwriters are out of the way, but bringing in DiGillio is far from a hopeful choice to turn what was a rather anticlimactic return to the now 29-year-old franchise, into a solid and reinvigorating third film.

Buzz for Tron 3 started almost immediately after the first film was released and gained steam when the DVD/Blu-ray hit shelves as it included a series of short films teasing more from the franchise. I’ve included one such video below. As far as where the franchise will go from here, we have only a few details.

Legacy director Joseph Kosinski spoke with Assignment X back at the end of March and told the site, “I think we will pick with where TRON: Legacy left off with Quorra (Olivia Wilde) in the real world and what does that mean and the possibilities it opens up for the next chapter. It’s that relationship between [Quorra and Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund)] that’s the next step.”

If you’ll also remember, Cillian Murphy has a small cameo in the film as the son of Dillinger (David Warner’s character from the original), which led many to speculate he would be the villain in the potential sequel. Speaking on that Kosinski added, “Dillinger was a really important part of the first film and felt like an easy way to continue that storyline and thread to have his son in the new movie. That way you have people ask those questions of what the Dillinger legacy is in the world of Tron. We didn’t want to ignore it completely and it leaves a really nice springboard for some intertwining development for the next film.”

If you’re wondering whether Kosinski will return for the third film that’s unclear at this point. He does have Oblivion with Tom Cruise coming up for Universal with plans to begin shooting in October with a reported budget of $100 million. Will Disney want to wait until summer 2012 or so to begin filming on Tron 3 for a 2013 release, or will they be more interested in preparing it for Holiday 2012? A lot of questions and not a lot of answers at the moment as you need a story and a script before you can do much else.

Tell me, are you optimistic a third film will turn this boat around or do you wish they would just let it die?